HRM Business Practices and Notes

Increasing Demand for HRM Professionals and Its Implication

2008-07-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

If you have watched television or read any newspapers or magazines, you have undoubtedly come across reports dealing with ethics and legal challenges to business practices (such as the discrimination lawsuits against Wal-Mart), off-shoring and outsourcing of jobs (such as IBM plans to send 5,000 jobs to India), and changes in benefits and pension plans (consider Whole Foods’ health care plan, which has a large deductible of $1,500 but allows employees to decide how to use the monies the company deposits to their health care account). Also, companies such as J.M. Smucker (the jam and jelly company), the Container Store (the storage and organization), and Edward Jones (financial services firm) give employees a chance to make a difference at work and as a result have received positive media attention for being included on Fortune magazine’s list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For.” These media reports highlights how choices that companies had made about Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices influence employees, managers, shareholders, the community, and ultimately, the success of the company. (p.VIII, Human resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, 5th Edition)

What does this insightful observation implies?

This only tells us that HRM professionals are now becoming indispensable members of their organization. In fact, according to the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics:
HRM Professionals held about 868,000 jobs in 2006. The following tabulation shows the distribution of jobs by occupational specialty:

Training and development specialists -210,000
Employment, recruitment, and placement specialists -197,000
Human resources managers -136,000
Compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists -110,000
Human resources, training, and labor relations specialists, all other -214,000
Human resources, training, and labor relations managers and specialists were employed in virtually every industry. About 17,000 managers and specialists were self-employed, working as consultants to public and private employers.

The private sector accounted for nearly 9 out of 10 jobs, including 13 percent in administrative and support services; 10 percent in professional, scientific, and technical services; 9 percent in health care and social assistance; 9 percent in finance and insurance firms; and 7 percent in manufacturing.

Government employed 13 percent of human resources managers and specialists. They handled the recruitment, interviewing, job classification, training, salary administration, benefits, employee relations, and other matters related to the Nation’s public employees.

Further, BLS sees a projected increase of 16% by 2016.

Here are some implications I have in mind:

HRM Professionals are indispensable in corporate or business planning. They now play a key strategic role in the direction and future of businesses. Human resource is no longer seen as a CAPEX or capital expenditures. Employees with talents, professional experience and skills are now investment. Hence potentials’ development hinges on the programming initiated by an organization’s HRM Department.
HRM Professionals are indispensable in recessions. In a economic slowdown were downsizing and retrenchment are commonplace, these professionals are in the forefront in ensuring that employees are not summarily displaced but also compensated and placed on reserve when a better economy starts grinding. They ensure that only competent and qualified employees remained in employ for the business to continue operating at its best.
HRM Professionals are indispensable in the hiring process. The success of an organization hinges on the kind of employees it attracts and keeps. The HRM professional is trained and equipped to take on this role and ensure that the organization has only the best employees suited for various jobs and functions.
HRM Professionals are indispensable in the financial management of the company. Salaries, wages, benefits and perks can drain a company’s resources when not managed properly. Retaining competent employees entails providing a competitive compensation package. Competitive package simply means keeping your employees happy. An HRM professional is able to measure and maintain the important elements needed to make these things work and in the process help increase the profitability of the company.

Small Business Planning and Business Common Sense

2008-07-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

When I started out in business, I spent a great deal of time researching every detail that might be pertinent to the deal I was interested in making. I still do the same today. People often comment on how quickly I operate, but the reason I can move quickly is that I’ve done the background work first, which no one usually sees. I prepare myself thoroughly, and then when it is time to move ahead, I am ready to sprint. ~Donald Trump

If you have only 5 minutes to solve a business problem, you need at least the equivalent time to plan on how to solve it. Better yet, twice the amount solving it.

There are only very few business owners who never plan -they are the exceptions rather than the rules, and they are indeed exceptional in their crafts. Gifted with business intuitions and guts, they succeed. However, if you do not belong to these exceptional entities, common sense dictates that in any business endeavors, it is imperative to plan. To put it bluntly, in fact, business planning is plain common sense.

Business Planning is essential. It encompasses all the goals, strategies, and actions that you project, to ensure your business’s success. Sounds high-sounding, isn’t it? In simpler terms, think of business planning as being broken into two concepts: the profit-making side and the contingent side.

Profit making is your main business agenda, otherwise, you might want to consider building a charity organization instead, or go broke like me at the outset. XD . In this stage, you carefully and meticulosuly allocate your resources to create a viable business that will ensure you profit in the long run. Therefore, you look at your material, operational, selling and HR or people costs. You lay down these items in your business blue print. This ‘blue print’ is a dynamic document that needs to be updated throughout the life cycle of your business. You might want it in a soft format for easier updating. Microsoft Project is an excellent software tool for this ( That is not a product endorsement silly. XD)

Some business owners make business planning once, that is at the start. Some never, while others do it annually. IMO, and again, common sense dictates, business planning is most effective when it is done frequently and consistently in predetermined intervals. Schedule your frequency palnning, commit to it, and make sure that you do it religiously. Business planning is a dynamic process of reviewing progress on business goals and targets and setting new ones, that is why you have to do this frequently.

The other major aspect of business planning is contingent planning or contingency business planning. This aspect focuses on dealing with business crises, assessing beforehand the possible critical devastating scenarios (business threats) even before they occur. Insuring your business is only one part of contingency planning. A business contingency plan is a comprehensive and documented implementation plan to deal with perceived emergencies, events, or even new information affecting or may affect the viability of your business. Some calls this Risk Management. At this stage of your planning, you will assess your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis). Based on these assessments, you will lay down the implementing mechanisms that will shelter your business from any of these perceived possible crises and scenarios.

If your committed to succeed in your business, then, it is but common sense to plan. Otherwise,

“if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

Am I making sense here? Your comments please.

A Perfect Solution for Documents Conversion

2008-07-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

My management systems consultancy allows me to look into differing management systems employed in any industry. From food and beverages companies, to mining and manufacturing, and the service oriented companies. One of the most difficult part of any pre-assessment I have to make and the corresponding management solutions, is writing the actual resulting reports and my proposals.

These reports and proposals have to be submitted normally within five working days after the pre-assessment has been made. Else, my client companies will look elsewhere and/or get my competitors, which most of them are bigger outfits. These reports and proposal have to be sent to at least ten people within the organizations who are most likely can influence the decision of hiring me to implement a new or revised management systems into their operations.

Those ‘rush’ tasks can be overwhelming sometimes. Not until a colleague referred me to a unique printer solution -Universal Document Converter.

Here is a perfect solution that I needed for my consultancy work. With this solution, I can virtually convert my reports and proposals into PDF, JPEG, TIFF or other graphical files. Moreover, it helps me saves time and efforts in preparing PowerPoint presentations, emailing documents whose integrity were kept intact, and more, publishing my documents in my personal website.

Also, this solution is so easy to use with an accompanying video tutorial when you get it. Now, sending sensitive and important documents to my clients, in any format, has been and breeze, simpler, and faster –a perfect solution for document conversion indeed!

A Brief on Debt Management Basics

2008-06-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

When financial crunch times hit, many of us tend to rely on loans to bail us out. No wonder, more often we find ourselves drowning in debts later on. This is a direct result of taking on debts that we do not have the means to payback. More so, it could lead to damaging badly our financial health, including our credit scores.

In recession, no one wants to have creditors breathing on his neck while one struggle to make both ends meet. However, debts are responsibilities that you need to clear up the soonest, before interest rates eat up your income.

In an earlier post, I delve on the issue of going back to the basics of personal finance management as our best defense against recession. Debt management should have been a part of what I have proffered thus far.

Why debt management? Debt, more often, is a result of poorly or mismanaged finances. Hence, the only antidote is managing it through debt reduction or consolidation. As you take the steps of implementing the rudiments of basic personal finance management, you gain a stable footing enough to repay your debts. While getting another loan in order to pay your debts sounds irrational, this could be the best and quickest solution to settle them. In this respect, if you are unsure how to go about it, it’s time ask a debt professional to help you find the best solution to your financial situation. In any case, take debt management seriously and a matter of priority if you want to weather this recession and regain control of your finances.

Personal Finance Management Basics: Best Recession Defense

2008-06-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

Last January, this is what the BBC headline reads:

The feared recession in the US economy has already arrived, according to a report from Merrill Lynch.

It said that Friday's employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.

Six months after, these are the headlines:

US consumer confidence fell by more than expected in June, according to a key confidence survey.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 50.4, the lowest level since February 1992.

Confidence is down with the economy being hit by both a property slump and rising prices for food and fuel.

And

The US unemployment rate rose at its fastest pace in more than two decades in May, stoking fears of recession in the world's biggest economy.

The surprise jump in May's jobless rate to 5.5% from 5% is the most recent signal yet that US growth is stalling.

It shows US companies are more reluctant to hire as profits are squeezed by a consumer slowdown and soaring oil and raw material costs.

The US Labor Department said the economy lost 49,000 non-farm jobs. (BBC News)

Okey, enough of that. Given –life is more difficult now than ever, not only in US but for the rest of the world. Fuel crisis have reached the shores of those countries who thought that their economy is too vibrant to be affected by US recession and rising cost of fossil fuel.

Where this does leaves the ordinary working class and the small business owners?

To me, this calls for us to come to terms to these economic realities and get back to finance management basics. These basics are our best defense against this recession:

Reduce costs and/or expenditures where and when applicable;
Reinvent your income generation schemes by increase your income where and when possible. Find other means. Be creative. While keeping your day job and/or maintaining the core of your small business, look for other opportunities to increase your income. Remember how Chinese views or interpret the word ‘crisis’? Opportunity! Yeah, they always look at every crisis as opportunity to find something better from it;
Redefine your lifestyle. The kind of lifestyle you project and live directly affects your expenditures. Make an inventory of those activities you think you can live without and remove them from your routine. Believe me; you will be surprised how much money and time you will be able to save there from;
Re-channel your budgeting on the needs than the wants. The wants can always take a back seat;
Recycle and reuse;
Save, save, and save.

The HRM Professional As A Strategic Partner

2008-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when the primary role of HRM Professionals is to ‘hire and fire.’ Today, the corporate world and the work environments take a new shape and sound. Cultures and norms meet and mix in the shop floor, so much so that human resource, where it used to be viewed as a capital expense, is now considered as the a capital investment. Hence, HRM professionals have now a different set of roles.

The book entitled, “Personnel Management of the 21st Century” highlights some of the most crucial roles and responsibilities that a HRM Professional should carry on to become an effective strategic partner to business owners and decision makers, to wit:

Initiates and facilitates the strategic process of crafting the organization’s mission-vision and values;
Utilizes a planning process to arrive at clear performance indicators and targets aligned to business strategies;
Continuously acquires a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of the business and its dynamics and environment, as well as identifies the implications of (HRM or) human resource actions as a result of these;
Exercises foresight, courage, and competence for longer-term (organizational) change;
Translates business strategies into priorities and programs for human resources (employees), thereby aligning them;
Communicates business plan impact on human resources practices (HRM), and gets others to support the plan and activities;
Leads the marketing and communication of human resource (HRM) philosophy, principles, and associated platforms with business partners, and the rest of the human resources community;
Provides ongoing feedback to and consultation with the business partner and the rest of the human resources community to keep human resources on track with effective programs and services.

What do these strategic roles and responsibilities imply? These things could only mean that HRM professionals should look beyond the comfort of their routines and customarily roles and align their efforts and programs with the organizations business processes and strategies. In the first place, human resources (employees) are the prime movers of these business processes and strategies.

Related Post: HRM Increases Your Company's Competitiveness

SEO Performance Based for Small Business

2008-06-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

You have read or heard the hype a hundred times or more: We’ll’ get you on the top of the Google ranking list in 45 days, etc. Some of you were actually convinced and so hired the services of these so called ‘SEO gurus’ only to be dismayed that after the set deadline, your website is still sitting on the 100th page or so of the SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages). But , ey wait! Before you throw-in the towel on SEO, hear this out.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is indispensable to your website if you really want to get organic traffic that converts and sell your products online. There is a 100% Pure Performance Based Search Engine Optimization like iMajestic that can really help you in those ends. You pay only after they achieve and maintain the rankings you want, for the keywords you want, in the search engines you want. Yes, even Google! Sounds good, huh. Another, they require NO Set-up Fees and therefore NO Risk on your part. So, again, pay only when you get the results. Check them out today!

Business Intelligence Solution for Health Care Businesses

2008-06-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

The advent of IT (information Technology) has ushered in a new way of doing business. Probably, that statement sounds like old news with you. Nonetheless, I noticed that we sometimes tend to ignore that fact.

The application of IT Intelligence solution has now covered all forms of business and ways of doing business. Many ‘dotcom’ companies are taking this opportunity and are targeting specific niches. Among those is MedeFinance.com. They provide healthcare analytics and healthcare financing to the medical community, particularly hospitals.

What does it exactly do? This healthcare solutions provider aims to help hospitals, for example, manage their finances, operations, and performance through timely analysis and management of their critical information using applicable metrics. This means, healthcare providers can better discharge quality services, better track their business performance, better manage their suppliers, and most of all improve their financial performance.

BPO: A Small Business Alternative

2008-05-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

Running a small business can be too complex sometimes, which I believe need not be. Simplifying and improving processes can save you manhours, resources, and money; and it can also increase your productivity and most important of all, your profitability by focusing more on customers’ demand fulfillment.

Have a quick audit of your business processes and see where you can apply BPO or Business Process Outsourcing. Zero-in on those processes and see how you can increase your competitiveness and improve your efficiency by outsourcing. You will be surprised that you can in fact save more if you outsource these processes.

When you outsource, you can easily manage your order fulfillment because of your streamlined operations and business processes. You will be employing less people this way. Your other resources can now be channeled to the most important aspects of your business like R & D or Research and Development, Market Analysis, Strategic Business Planning, among others. Product fulfillment like packaging and or certain critical production operations, can be outsourced too. What you need to do is make a thorough process inventory and analysis to pinpoint these areas.

Do business smartly, outsource your important business processes.

Hiring the Right Home Improvement Professionals

2008-05-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

The US recession is on full swing. Gasoline price at $5 per gallon is a serious hit on our pockets. We are all, I understand on belt-tightening mode and hence plumbing repair, landscape design, and home improvement seem to take the back seat. This should not be the case. The first cannot wait, while the two, I agree, can. It will cost you more if you have plumbing problems that were left unattended. There is a better and cost-effective way to attend to all of these –hire the right home improvement professionals.

Browse the Done Right Directory. It is the trusted, free, and easy way for you to find, select and hire guaranteed home improvement professionals that meets your requirements and within your area. From general contractors, like San Diego General Contractor, to plumbers, electrical contractors to landscaping and handyman services, its directories feature guaranteed home improvement professionals across more than a hundred categories in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, San Diego, and almost twenty other markets across the US. You will never go wrong with them, and you save yourself from the angst of poor or unsatisfactory finished jobs. Hiring the right home improvement professionals for your needs will actually save you more in terms on cost.

HRM Core Values: Appreciation in the Workplace

2008-05-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

I am starting a series of posts today with a headline tag: HRM Core Values. Why this tag? Because the best managed, companies or businesses today have a common denominator: they have strong Human Resource Management (HRM) core values. These values serve as their guiding principle in people management.

For my intents and purposes here, I will be discussing relevant issues here that affect employees’ behavior and performance in the shop floor. These topics would delve on work values, ethics, attitudes, other psychological and physical factors that greatly affect employees’ morale and motivation to work. Here is the first entry:

Appreciation in the Workplace

Small Business owners are profit-driven. Well, who would be? That is the main reason you do business and stay in business –the bottom line is profit-making. However, profits gained should not be at the expense of employees’ morale. To illuminate this scenario:

A study reported in USA Today identified something interesting about employees in the workplace. Employers were asked, “What do you think your employees want most?”The employers responded:

No. 1 -Good Wages,
No. 2 -Job security, and
No. 3 -the chance for promotion

However, in those same locations, the employees rated good wages as No. 7, promotion as No. 12, and Job security as No. 13. What the employees said that they wanted were:

No. 1 –Interesting work
No. 2 –Appreciation for work done, and
No. 3 –A feeling of being in on things

What does these tell us? Retaining or keeping competent employees does not rest solely on high salary and excellent benefits packages but by valuing the worth of each employee. Simple as it sounds but it is true. The monetary value of a job well done is only secondary to the appreciation an employee wishes to receive from his employer or manager. This brings a feeling that he is an integral part of your business enterprise.

Let us put our way of doing business in a proper perspective. If you treat your staffs or employees as people not machine, business partners not paid slaves, or assets and not liabilities, they will respect you more, work harder, and remain loyal to you and your business. Try it today and see the difference.

Now, have your say please.

Mailing Leads for Your Sales and Marketing Campaign

2008-05-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

One of the crucial lessons I learned from corporate selling is getting quality mailing leads that are likely to be converted into sales. An inexperienced sales representative would out rightly tear a couple of pages from the telephone directory or yellow pages for his leads and go on ‘cold calls’ or starts faxing proposals. Inevitably, the result is frustrations and wasted efforts.

Generating leads is simpler, convenient, and effective today with American Heritage Data Corporation. They provide marketing list and direct marketing solutions to businesses of all sizes. In fact, if you are targeting a specific niche like potential borrowers, they can provide you a mortgage mailing list that you can start with for a small fee.

So why not simplify your sales and marketing campaign and start selling with quality leads.

Protect your Business Data with an Anti Spam filtering Mechanism

2008-05-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

I remembered receiving an email sometime in June 2000 from one of my staff with a subject heading, “I love you” and an attachment text entitled, “love letter for you.” I was, of course, surprised and at the same time elated. Wow! I have a secret admirer (lover lol) from one my pretty staff. Little did I know that the email was not actually sent by her. I clicked on the attachment to read the ‘letter’ but there was none. Instead, funny things happened afterwards. My MIS staff reported that our mail server was infected by the ‘love bug.’

The ‘love bug’ or ‘I love you virus’ is actually a worm encrypted as VBS script attached to emails.

“Its massive spread moved westward as workers arrived at their offices and encountered messages generated by people from the East. Because the virus used mailing lists as its source of targets, the messages often appeared to come from an acquaintance and so might be considered "safe", providing further incentive to open them. All it took was a few users at each site to access the VBS attachment to generate the thousands and thousands of e-mails that would cripple e-mail systems under their weight, not to mention overwrite thousands of files on workstations and accessible servers.” (Source: Wikipedia)

It wrought a damage amounting to $5.5 billion approximately, before an anti-virus was developed to counter it.

If your network or system does not have an Anti Spam Filtering mechanism, you are making your business data vulnerable to possible malicious access and attacks like what the ‘love bug’ did in 2000. Stop threats before they reach your network with a Barracuda Spam Firewall. Enterprise class protection is now affordable to the small medium sized businesses like yours.

• Nothing to purchase, install, manage or maintain
• Your email passes through our filters before reaching your network
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Email has now become the standard tool for business communication and therefore you have the responsibility to protect yourself and your business associated from any possible threats. Threats over the net will always be there. A simple spam mail is no longer simply an added memory grabber in your inbox, it could be a malicious script that is ready do harm on your sensitive files, which could mean unnecessary losses and/ or cost on your part. By all means, make that small investment and protect your business.

Sales Management is about Relationship Management

2008-05-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

During the early years of my career, I actually moonlighted into sales for more than 4 years then I went back to my first love, i.e., Human Resource Management. I remember being asked on an interview for my first sales Job for Xerox: What’s common between Human Resource Management and Sales Management? I answered confidently: People Management. Further, I said, in HRM you manage people within the organization, while in sales you manage those outside the organization. I got the job, and so my immersion in sales management begun.

My answer during that interview was immediately tested during my sales calls. I realized that selling is building relationships. You do not simply shoved products to your potential customers. They expect that you provide value and credibility more than what your product offers. And this can only be accomplished through relationship building.

How many SME’s (Small and Medium Enterprises) know that basic sales principle? Or narrowly, how many sales people know selling is about relationship building?

John Huggart, founder of Sales Positive, believes that sales is a profession and should be recognized as such. Further, he believes that the cost of winning and keeping customers is an investment and management process that must be measured and managed. His approach lies on the basic principle of customer relationships building. To this end, he emphasizes the core value and discipline of aligning all efforts and investments towards assessing and refining the sales processes and activities to produced maximum results and profits.

His consultancy outfit provides strategic sales consulting and services that enable companies to grow and lift profits. It also offers Sales Audit that provides a comprehensive review of sales capability, functions, and marketing alignments; and a Sales Survey that scan your market for sales challenges that need to be addressed. The results derived from these exercises then become the basis for practical and profitable recommendations for change.

Getting sales, higher than the previous month, will always be any business’ primary goal. Who wouldn’t? Because in a market-driven society we quickly learn that we either grow or outsell our competitions, or we die and close shops. We lose our edge if we allow our competitors to win and keep our customers while we sit on the fences figuring-out how they did it. It’s time for a paradigm-shifting: get your customers by building relationships with them.

Branding Basics for Small Businesses

2008-05-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Other than providing value for your services or products offering, how do you set your small business apart from your competitors? How do you want to project yourself in public, especially to both to your loyal and potential customers?

Every business wants to be a customer's preferred choice. However, how do you make that happen? Branding. Sounds too simplistic huh. Yeah. But more often, this is one of the crucial elements in our sales and marketing efforts that we tend to neglect or remove from the process entirely.

Building and managing a brand, though sounds simple, is not easy. When done properly, it can significantly boost your sales and your product becomes a preferred choice. Here are two important takes you can immediately do:

Define and create your brand. You start by identifying your strengths as an organization and the values that your products or services offer. You must ensure that you can always deliver your promises using your strengths and core values. This brand should differentiate you from your competitors. It should impel your customer’s choice to sway on your side when making a buying decision. Package this brand in your offers and in the way you do business. Match your brand with your customers’ needs and requirements. Most often, customers buy not because of the price consideration but because they perceive that, you are able to meet their needs and requirements as your brand represents.

Build and promote your brand by telling your customers. Take every opportunity to reinforce your brand image and core values. Here are some of the areas that you need to consider:

Organization’s or business name,
Products or services labels or identities,
Business logo and byline or slogan printed on promotional products and corporate gifts,
Packaging that bespeaks of your brand and core values,
Advertising means and methods, e.g., investing on promotional items that projects the image of your business,
Develop employee’s values and attitudes consistent with your brand and core values. This is where some organizations fail to deliver. The attitudes of their employees speak contrary to what they claim. Communicate your brand to your employees and train them through your HRM department to behave and talk according to your brand and core values.

Align all of these to your brand and core values on a consistent basis. Surely, your customers will value you in return. On the contrary, when these things do not speak of your brand, your customer will remember you in a bad light, and worse, tell others.

Small Business Marketing Basics and its Implications in ProBlogging

2008-05-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

If you're attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn't, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income. -Jay Abraham

When marketing your small business, you have to remember that you are embedding a message in each unit you sell; a message that you hope will aid your market in distinguishing you from your competitors, because consumers don't just buy a product, but perceived benefits as well. Jeans, for example, are clothing articles made of denim, but Calvin Klein attaches sex appeal to every pair, and Lee sells individuality. Coke sells happiness in a bottle , while Pepsi sells youth.

Ironically, I have observed that in most cases due to our ardent desire to pursue our customers, we tend to neglect the basics of small business marketing where all of our small business efforts hinge. When engaging on a marketing campaign, online or off-line, consider the following small business marketing basics:

Product. Pay attention to your product features and benefits; capitalize on them. Today's consumers are value driven. Consider finding what your niche market values most and present your product towards that end. Remember, customers buy on the perceived benefits of your product first and foremost, the rest is secondary. So package your product benefits well. Make them stand-out from the rest of the pack!

Price. Is your price competitive? Is it a pay-per value offer to your targeted consumers? I know, you want a quick ROI (Return on Investment) on your capital, but please don't do it overnight. Business experts say that the first six months of your operation may be considered operating at a loss. Pay-off usually starts on the seventh. One way of keeping your targeted customers is paying close attention to your pricing.

Place. Is your product accessible to your targeted customers? Is it visible on the shelf, if you are selling off-line. Do you have a shopping cart in your web site where they can conveniently add the product when they purchase online? Is your web user-friendly? Meaning, they do not have to use the search function in order to find what they came for? IMO, a good, simple, and easily-navigated web design is a customer-keeper. Also, check your websites's loading time more often. Product pictures or other graphics can slow down its loading. Slower loading can easily drive-off your potential customers.

Promotion. Try other marketing activities. Don't stick on one medium or methodology. Experiment. But experiment with caution, i'd say, for experimenting is costly. Lastly, three important things: (1) promote, (2) promote, (3) and promote your products to your targeted consumers.

Implications in ProBlogging:

If you are treat ProBlogging like a small business, here are ProBlogging Marketing basics you need to seriously consider:

Product: Is your blog a visit-for-value blog? How is it different from the millions of blogs out there? Do your readers get a perceived benefits when they visit?

Price: I suppose, you are selling ad spaces or reviews, then check with other blogs on the same niche if your pricing is competitive. Compare by PR's, Alexa Ranking, Traffic, and other elements which advertiser might consider.

Place: Is your blog lay-out 'eyes-friendly'? Meaning, are readers encouraged to read when they visit your blog? Consider your blog's design. Avoid clutters. Remember the KISS principle? Keep it simple sweetheart (err...stupid?). Ask the opinion of others regarding your blog's readability. Also, if you have submitted your blog to social networks and blog directories, make sure that it is listed on the appropriate category. IMO, that is plain common sense, right? Sadly, to date I am seeing a lot of blogs that are somehow misplaced in Entrecard. ^^

Promotion: There are so many mediums out there, don't stick to one. If you are thinking (imagining) of monetizing your blog with 10 to 30 page views a day -forget it. Your source of income is from traffic -I see none else. So, again, promote, promote, and promote!

Here's to your ProBlogging success! Now, you may react. ^^

Basic Personal Finance and Credit Cards Management Tips

2008-05-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

How you manage your personal finances and credit cards directly reflects how you manage your small business’ finances. You cannot isolate the former from how you actually manage your small business. I have noticed that those who failed miserably in their start-up business were actually those who mismanaged their personal finances and buried themselves in debts. You can avoid that. Here are three practical tips on basic personal finance and credit cards management (unfortunately, we tend to neglect) you might want to consider:

(1) Credit cards are your business allies. They can bridge the gap between paying your suppliers and your next collection. Caution though, you should always get only no annual fee credit cards. Do not add burden on yourself with annual membership fees that arbitrarily increase yearly even when you have not utilized your cards. If you can find credit cards that can offer, interest-free credits but with annual fees, try to weigh your options.

(2) Choose balance transfer credit cards. This is by far the easiest way to manage your spending and protect your good credit ratings. Through this sensible process, you actually save money from APR interest rates. Not only that, here, you will only worry about a single creditor. Why carry multiple cards when you can have one that can suit your needs? Having one creditor breathing behind your neck is more comfortable and you can ably have control over your personal finances. Remember; make your credit card works for you like an ally.

(3) Carefully use your credit cards for your NEEDS, not WANTS. This is personal finance common sense. But how many of us have really taken this seriously? Well, if you are one of the heirs of Hilton probably you need not worry about this. We have seen many rich and famous people who were dethroned from their financial thrones (pun intended) and are now wallowing in debts. Lesson: they failed to manage their wants. I will always revert you to Tips No.1 because that is where it should start. Make your credit card your ally by utilizing your credits on your NEEDS only. In short, prioritize your spending.

Very basic indeed, yet we tend to ignore. Let me hammer this with Dave Ramsey’s sensible admonition:

Financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this.

Basic Small Business Management Principles: A Practical Perspective

2008-04-26T07:42:00.001-07:00

We don't have much in the way of a business strategy. Like no business plan. Which I say to torment all my friends who are…MBAs. That's always entertaining. The deal is it's a mixture of luck and persistence. ~Craig Newmark, founder of the popular free classifieds website Craigslist

Can success to small business management be relegated to luck? Or is it a mixture of luck and persistence as Craig puts it? Is there a short-cut to small business success?

Here, I’d like to address the issue of small business management in a very practical way. Do note that I am qualifying it to ‘small business’ because larger enterprises are more complicated to be given a micro treatment. However, it does not negate the practicality of these two basic small business management principles I’d like to share:

Principle 1: Small Business Management is not Easy

Managing your own small business is never easy. This is an entirely different ball game. You are the boss, and that made it more difficult. Because your day to day business decisions can make or break your small business and none is responsible but you!

What do you do when you don’t see profits over the last six months? When you are incurring cost after cost which you have not anticipated during your business planning? When the people you hired are not delivering the performance or results you expected? When the marketing and advertising campaigns you launched seem to have not met the targeted exposure you want? When clients fail to pay on time or sometimes, not pay at all? When you received daily complaints on your products and services? The list can go on and on.

These things can cause small businesses to tilt, lose moorings, and eventually close shop in no time if not properly address. It is never easy to manage your own small business. Corporate work is a lot easier because you are only responsible for certain aspects of the business, not all, unlike when you own and manage the small business yourself. It takes sound business acumen, entrepreneurial skills, and accurate planning to succeed in this enterprise.

Principle 2: Small Business Management takes Persistence

It is not easy, yes, but anyone can succeed if they hang-on and face the challenges. What I mentioned above are but parts and parcels of realities you have to face when running your own small business. Again, it is not an easy path to take. I am just dispelling the idea that small business management is easy. In fact, in the strictest sense, it is not even a principle but plain business common sense.

Money is not all the necessary investment you have to make in order to succeed in small business management. You need to invest a lot on persistence too. Persistence, which is a mark of a devoted businessman or entrepreneur, is your key to sustaining your business in the worse of times. Especially now that global economic recession has encroached us, or is in fact pushing businesses out of the game. Persistence will not come overnight. It is something that you have to cultivate within you. It is something that you have practice in every area of your life. It is never luck. Frank Lloyd said it more accurately:

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

Here's to your small business success!

Now, have your say please.

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Related post: Small Business Planning

Why a Corporate Pro chose to become a Problogger (Part 4 of 4)

2008-04-16T01:18:00.000-07:00

6. I’ve found a market niche that is so fertile and intend to become an authority there.

I do understand that there are many authorities that can easily be relied on in that niche, but very-very few of them are into blogging. Nevertheless, it is a great opportunity that I hate to miss.

7. Problogging is a business and a job that you can take and do anywhere.

I am a WAHD. A Work At Home Dad type. In my previous stint, my job takes me away from home most of the time. One fatal result, of which, is a broken marriage. Problogging allows me to dictate my pace and stay at home most of the time. My son deserves my attention, and he is lucky that he is getting more of it. Or should I say, I am luckier because I get to see him grow.

8. Problogging is both an exciting and a challenging feat.

Need to say more? Nah. You know better than I.

Again, let me reiterate: Problogging is not easy. It is not a a quick-money-making scheme as some try to peddle. It is a new business model that requires good planning, continuous learning, resilience, and most of all an ardent love for giving value to your readers. If you are not willing to invest your time, energy, and give your 101% commitment, you have already failed even before you started.

Here's to your ProBlogging success!

Are you a career problogger or a wannabe? What led or inspired you?

* Read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , and "...why I left the Corporate World"